Daily Football Fix: Summer of bonding for Gators

Now that Taven Bryan, the “Wyoming Wild Man”, has taken his game to the NFL, junior middle linebacker David Reese has the distinction of being the Gator who is furthest from home.

Reese is from Farmington, Mich., which is 1,060 miles from Gainesville. He’s a long way from home, but he’s OK with it.

“I’m pretty much used to it,” Reese said. “My parents come down here a lot. They’re both administrators, teachers. They get off time to come down here and check me out. They come to most of my games. I’ve got a good support system around me, so I don’t really feel it as much, but I do miss it a little bit. I try to get home when I can.”

Reese doesn’t have time to go back home this summer. He’s too busy working on his game and working out with his teammates.

He said the competition among the players never ends, and that it’s a good thing.

“We always compete with each other,” he said. “This is supposed to be a fun thing. This isn’t work, a job or nine to five. We always compete with each other day in and day out just to get the energy going and enjoy coming out here every day.

“Definitely. We feel as a team we have to have energy and try to sustain it as long as possible through the season. I feel like that’s what great teams have. They don’t ever fall off.”

Reese said this is going to be a summer of bonding for the Gators.

“We actually have a couple of team events that we’ve been doing and trying to stick around with each other. We know that’s what we’re going to have to do to win games when it’s tight.”

As for being more than 1,000 miles from his hometown, Reese said Gainesville actually is home now.

To the Florida players: PLEASE……Just stay the hell away from bars late at night on any night. Stay out of cars with questionable characters at 3pm in the morning. Turn in any credit cards you find and never use one you find or are given. Ignore any drug dealer of any kind on campus or elsewhere. Avoid loose or questionable women in private rooms, or any room for that matter. Stay clear of frat houses and alcohol filled parties. And make sure you attend all your classes, work hard in the weight and film rooms, visit the academic study building often, and get together in whatever room relates to academics and/or football with your teammates. Just please stay out of trouble and be smart all summer. Make Gator Nation, your coaches, and your parents/family proud all summer…..and then do the same in the fall. Go Gators.

Tampa, I hope you were writing this for fellow bloggers. If the student athletes even read it do you think it would make a difference? I mean to the kid that really has that type thing in his heart? NORMALLY if it something he would do, he generally thinks he can get away with it. The only reason I am responding is because the statement, though being true in a real since cast a shadow on ALL FOOTBALL players, that’s the part that I’m having a problem with. If you were giving a lecture or life lesson seminar to the football team, that would be a great subject. I think it too all inclusive for a forum like this because you have other thinking that the entire team has such mentality. Just my opinion Tampa and you know I am a fan of yours, its just something i thought was was worthy of bringing to your attention! GO GATORS!!!

I initially had a similar reaction, Creek, especially in the context of Tampa’s overall excellent level of football savvy……but the more I digested it I came to the conclusion that–after all the misbehavior that influenced last season–well, somebody needed to say it. No, I doubt that players will even read it, but it clearly adds another dimension, an important one at that, to the mix. Why not go ahead and bring it up where applicable? Shoot, we talk about anything and everything on here anyway!

I once knew a psychiatrist–pretty good guy–who I used to bum dips from when I was still in the Army. It wasn’t until after I retired I finally met his wife, he brought her by my office one day…..pretty little thing. Thing about it, both Bob and SHE were chewing, replete with their own individual spit cups. Know where they were from? You guessed it, Joe: Tennessee. No foolin’.

Like I always said, Army Psychiatrists! The very best psychiatrists of all!

Hey Mikey it was almost as bad as the beatdown that Bama put on your Noles in which you lost ONLY one player, that caused your entire joke of a team to crumble to a 7 win season. That’s right ONLY losing one player is all it took to make that team crumble. But keep running your mouth you ignorant loser. It’s going to be fun watching the downfall of the Noles. It’s only a matter of time before the deep seeded issues within that program, that cause jumbo to run as fast as he could, reveal themselves.

Mikey (Tebowcurse). Your nose must be very long based on the lies you tell on here. Checked Rivals. Reese received a full offer from Michigan. He chose to official visit Texas, TCU, Nebraska, and Florida after offers from them instead, picking Florida for his education and football opportunities. But he was hardly rejected by Michigan (since they offered him). Seems more like Reese rejected Michigan and has since excelled as a linebacker at Florida. By the way, who is the middle linebacker at FSU who could not stop the powerful offense of Boston College last year?